Vehicles travel to move cargo and/or passengers along a route and/or network of interconnected routes. These vehicles may operate according to rules to ensure the safety of the cargo, passengers, and operators of the vehicles. These rules may differ from the regulations or laws created by governmental or regulatory entities. For example, while governments and regulatory bodies may create speed limits that restrict how fast vehicles may travel in order to reduce accidents and/or the severity of accidents caused by vehicles traveling too fast, other entities may create rules to dictate operation of the vehicles. As one example, a company that owns and operates a locomotive may create rules that restrict how the locomotive can be operated in order to ensure the safety of the operator, passengers, and cargo, and/or to reduce wear on the track, cars, or locomotive.
With respect to locomotives, one such rule is a limitation on how slowly an operator can control the locomotive to move when an air brake is partially applied. If the locomotive is moving below a speed limit, such as 20 miles per hour or 32 kilometers per hour, and the air brake of the locomotive or the train that includes the locomotive is partially applied (such as by dropping the air pressure in a reservoir of the air brake by 10 lbs or 4.5 kg of air pressure) to slow down, but not stop, the locomotive or train, then a rule of the locomotive may cause a control system of the locomotive to automatically fully engage the brakes to stop the locomotive. This rule may further require the locomotive to remain stationary while a compressor of the locomotive or train increases the air pressure in the air brake to at least a designated threshold. At that point, the locomotive or train can continue moving.
Such a rule may be useful in situations where an operator of a locomotive is partially applying the air brakes of the locomotive to slow down the locomotive on a downhill graded portion of a route. The rule can prevent the operator from depleting too much air pressure from the air brakes. For example, if the operator were allowed to continue bleeding off the air in the air brakes, then there may be insufficient air pressure to operate the brakes should the need arise (e.g., while the compressor is working to increase the air pressure).
However, such a rule also can inhibit movement of the vehicle (e.g., locomotive or train). For example, the operator may unknowingly operate the vehicle slower than necessary and, when the brakes are partially applied, the operator unintentionally causes the vehicle to fully stop and remain stationary for a period of time. As a result, the vehicle is unable to continue to its scheduled destination on time.